To call the Drive-By Truckers an alt-country band is a disservice--to the Truckers and their Buzzcocks-meet-the-Outlaws brand of punk-rock twang, as well as to most alt-country bands, which hardly belong in the same county as DBT, let alone borrowing the same genre. This remastered re-release of the Alabama foursome’s 1999 sophomore record picks up where its debut album Gangstabilly (also re-issued by New West Records) left off--fruitful storyteller Patterson Hood and his cotton-drawl vocals bobbing and weaving through the trepidations and peculiarities of his life in the Deep South. The Truckers abstain from some of the white-trash bulls-eyes and volume 11 blasters on their debut for a 14-song hootenanny about riding bulldozers in red clay, a reclusive uncle, giving up sex for the Lord, and a Memphis performance by the late shock-rocker G.G. Allin. The bluesy sing-a-long "Nine Bullets" features one round of lead for each of Hood’s adversaries, but two songs later he harmoniously reminisces his great-grandmother in "Box of Spiders." It’s a remarkable divergence that drives Pizza Deliverance and sets the table for the Southern Rock Opera that comes next. - Scott Holter